As part of her first solo exhibition in the gallery Haze of Belonging, Yasmin Sliai presents a series of recent paintings that explore our understanding of home, belonging, time, and memory. The exhibition continues the artist's ongoing investigations into the interconnected nature of these themes through experimentations with motive and patterns, form and colour.
Using recognizable interiors such as a sofa, a window, a chair, or a rug, Sliai's works often depict intimate portrayals of relations and homes. Yet, simultaneously, the paintings seem to evoke the underlying question of what home even means or is. Is home our closest relations: the bond between two sisters or is home a specific place: a house or a town? Is it waiting for something or someone?
Throughout Sliai's practice there is a continuous attention to history, not only of places and people, but of materials, such as the coarsely structured fabric, jute - one of the oldest materials used for canvases throughout history - that is often visible as a backdrop against the careful overlays of colour. Using the heavily textured canvas, Sliai's paintings instil in us a sensuous experience, almost compelling us to touch and feel the dry fabric. By letting the material speak for itself, she highlights the dense, yet transparent quality of the works. She reminds us of Tunisian architecture, the warm colours and motives that turn into patterns, as she generates her own new patterns that emerge as a form of code language, spanning across the various paintings in the exhibition.
Through juxtapositions of familiar everyday scenarios with mythical or symbolic gestures, the paintings carry a dreamy quality that invites us to ponder the intimate relations between people and places, being and not being, belonging and longing. Like threads of dreams and memories, they seem to convey glimpses into a forgotten time or perhaps, an imagined future. They emerge as hazy depictions of memories from a dream or brief moments in time signifying the universal in the seemingly trivial everyday life. The small, little things that we may sometimes take for granted - yet, possessing the uttermost importance.
In this way, Haze of Belonging investigates what it means to hold on to something; to a memory, to a moment, to a life, or to a place. Nonetheless, for Sliai, the paintings do not only become a way of capturing fleeting dreams and memories before they slip away, they also become a way of offering these dreams and memories new meanings and endings.
Yasmin Sliai (b. 2000) studies at the Royal Danish Academy of Arts. She has a Danish / Tunisian background and works with oil paint and graphics. Sliai explores the understanding of home, belonging and letting blurred memories grow with curiosity and imagination. In the process, she is interested in learning as well as discovering old family stories and myths. She investigates forms and develops patterns while working with and responding to grief. Recent exhibitions include Charlottenborg Spring Exhibition (2024).
